Fun Time Waster

Especially if you're sick.

The Rules.

Click on the Yeti to make the penguin jump.
Click on him again to swing the bat.
See how far you can get the penguin to fly. 8)

Its awesome.

My best is 316.

Bleh.

I've been sick for 3 weeks, so I finally broke down and saw a doctor.

I have a sinus infection. I feel like my nose weighs 20 pounds.

Odd Cold Remedy

I'm still sick, even though it feels like I've been sick forever. Tomorrow we're having our team Christmas party, so I had to go shopping to get the stuff for funeral potatoes (they're a work favorite). Since I was there, I ended up buying a little tub of 6 layer dip, because it looked good and I was sick and grumpy that I had to be at the store instead of at home. Anyway, I was eating the dip and hit a jalapeno. Through the pain in my mouth I realized that I could feel the heat in my sinus and my congestion actually started feeling better. Weird huh?

Monday Music Video

A hospital dances for breast cancer awareness.

Muppet Bohemian Rhaposdy

Momma?

Monday AMV

We need a Zuko tribute I think.



Sorry I haven't been posting lately. Work's been insane.

Seriously?

Images of Prince Zuko and his infamous scar from the live action Last Airbender movie.



I mean, its barely there! Come on makeup people, I know you can do better burn scars than that.

Monday AMV

This was the amv that got me hooked on Soul Eater.

Within Temptation - The Last Time

Another Good Song!!

Within Temptation - Utopia (feat. Chris Jones) Official Music Video

New song from one of my favorite bands. Enjoy!! Everyone have a good friday.

A little Tuesday Fun

Although I have to admit, I love this stupid song.

Monday AMV

I just started watching Death Note, which is good, but disturbing.



I saw this AMV at Otakon, and it got me interested in Death Note in the first place.

Falstaff and Scare Force One

Friday I saw Falstaff at the Kennedy center, and on Sat I saw the DC roller derby at the National Armory. Between the two, I covered the entire spectrum of cultural events this weekend.

Falstaff was very well done, although some unexpected construction slowed us up and we got there just as it was starting. We had to sit in back of house, but it was better than cooling our heels in the lobby until intermission. The music was beautiful, and I especially enjoyed the quartets and octets. Amazing. My favorite part though, occurred in the final act.
Its set in a wood, during a masquerade, and the fairy queen enters with her attendants, all dressed in fluffy white dresses with veils. Its the ballet corps! They walk out slowly, strike a graceful pose, and then lifted their veils to reveal that all the dancers (except the queen) were men. One of them had a beard. They then proceeded to attempt ballet through out the act, including a dramatic run behind the cast as all 30 of them sang together in one final song. It was hysterical.

On Sat we (my roommates and some friends from work) went to check out the DC Rollerderby. We discovered rollerderby after watching "Whip It" and wanted to see the real thing. It was pretty awesome. Not nearly as violent as the movie makes it out to be, although the women take some really hard spills. There was one jam where my favorite jammer "Lenore Gore" from Scare Force One got taken out three times. It looked like it hurt.

I was cheering for Scare Force One, and everyone else cheered for the Cherry Blossom Bombshells because they were wearing pink. My team triumphed with a final score of 143-46. Those girls can skate. Of course, the best part are the names. I liked Condileeze Slice, Splatsy Kline, Skid Ho, and Guantanamo Bay.

After the bouts were over, we went out for burgers. It was fun to drive through DC and see all the parents walking their kids around the neighborhoods. It was a good Halloween

Monday AMV

I've started watching an anime called Vampire Princess Miyu. Miyu's job is to use her vampire powers to defend the earth from demons, monsters, enormous lizards and such. In actuality, she spends most her time posing dramatically, playing her own theme music while her flunkies do most of the work.

This cracks me up every time it happens.

Shaolin Monks

Last night I went with my friend Yoosh to see the Shaolin Monks perform at George Mason. It was awesome. There were about 20 monks, including two little boys who couldn't have been more than 9. They performed their martial art to a soundtrack of chanting and drums, hitting, kicking, and spinning incredibly fast. The two little boys each did a series of front flips, like 6 in a row, without using their hands. They also had a part which in my mind I call the Frogger Dance. The entire thing was done while the monks where on their hands and feet, and then they'd crawl, run, and jump amazing heights from that awkward crouched position. Those guys have to have thigh muscles the size of cannonballs. At one point, they went out into the audience and brought up about 30 kids, ranging from college age to a 5 year old boy that was adorable. They put them in rows, smallest to tallest, and tried to teach them a series of Shaolin moves. Hilarity ensued. My favorite were some of the little kids, who were trying so hard to kick their hands that they fell over. UPDATE: I mean, look at these dudes!

Much Ado About Nothing

Last night we went to the Folger to catch their first play of the season, Much Ado About Nothing. It was set in a Caribbean neighborhood in DC, so not only where the actors performing Shakespeare, they were doing it with Jamaican accents. It was cool and very impressive. I enjoyed it very much. Afterwards we went to Good Stuff, the restaurant owned by Spike from Top Chef for burger sand fries. The best thing there? The mango mayonnaise. The fries are cooked with salt and rosemary, and then you dip them in a variety of sauces. Mango mayonnaise is my favorite though.

Deep Fried Oreos and Crunches

On Sat I went to the Maryland Ren Faire, an enormous affair of shops, shows and food on a stick. They offer Chicken on stick, Beef on a stick, sausage on a stick, Mac n' cheese on a stick (its deep fried in triangles, then put on a stick) and cheesecake on a stick. I had ribs, fried potatoes, mac n' cheese on a stick, part of a turkey leg, deep fried oreos, and cheesecake on a stick. (The cheesecake isn't fried, its frozen and then dipped in chocolate. It was delicious) I felt everyone of those delactible items tonight in Krav. Especially when we did ab exercises. I chanted "Bye bye Oreos" in my head once the flutterkicks started getting really painful. We also did shopping, saw some shows, and the joust. They also had a booth where you could throw 7 chinese stars for 2 bucks. If you got four in the heart you got a free drink. It was more difficult than I thought. Its a weird cross between throwing a baseball and skipping a rock. By the time I managed to get the knack of it, I had a nice little cluster going. One board over from the painted heart. Never could get them to curve left. However, of all the people up there, I was the only one who managed to throw all 7 stars to the target wall. My friends told me someone in the audience said, "That girl's got a good arm!"

Oh no...

This is horrible.

Only in DC

On my way home I passed a church sign that read "God is our Chief Justice."

Monday AMV

I've been watching Card Captor Sakura for months now (its looong) which is adorable, and as I near the end, I feel like soon I will be investing some serious time in Tsubasa. What can I say, Clamp puts out good stories.

This is Cool

Yet also insane.

The Human Jumbotron.

Monday Night Awesomeness

On Monday night I went to Krav. There were only four of us there, so the instructor participated in the mass attacker drill.

You had to start in the center of the circle, sitting down with eyes closed and then when it started you had to jump up and fight your way out of the circle. Meanwhile, the attackers tried to keep you on the ground, knocking you over and then put you in a choke. (We'd been practicing the defense all class).

So when I started I jumped up just as the instructor barreled into me. He tried to take me to the ground but I managed to flip him and put him into the choke. I was so stunned at my own success that I actually stopped, looked down at him, and said "Now what do I do?" He was too busy laughing in delight to answer, so one of the other students yelled out "Punch him in the face!"

I felt very proud of myself.

While I was grappling with the instructor, I felt him graze my face. It didn't hurt so I didn't think anything about it.

Until I went home, and noticed that I had a swollen spot of purple and blue right at the corner of my eye.

I have the world's smallest black eye.

Monday AMV

I finished Soul Eater this weekend. That makes me kind of sad.

Monday-Video Clip

I'm totally hooked on TNT's show Leverage. Especially since Netflix has past seasons available to watch instantly.

Art and Soul

I don't know if any of you watched Top Chef Masters, but one of their contestants owns a restaurant in DC. Wednesday we went there to celebrate The Starving Artist's birthday. We all ordered different things and then shared. I got an Oyster Po boy Hoe Cake. The Hoe cake is a flat, grilled piece of corn bread, and then it had the po boy on top of it. It was amazing. Their fried oysters were really well done, and I liked their spicy remoulade sauce. Then it was served with some romaine lettuce. They had another one that had carmelized onions, apples, lettuce and goat cheese that was also really good. I ordered the roast chicken which was tender and juicy, and it came with a goat cheese biscuit which I didn't care for. It was just sooo dry. We also got various sides. We ordered roast vegetables, buttermilk mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and fried green tomatoes. The mashed potatoes were awesome and, has one of our friends put it, the mac and cheese was "literally the stuff that dreams are made from." They came in their own little skillets, and the macroni was thicker and more twisty than your average mac n' cheese. The mac was in a really creamy white sauce, and there was toasted cheddar all across the top. It was gooey. It was creamy. It was amazing. Yes, yes, I went to a gourmet restaurant and my favorite dish was the 6 dollar mac n' cheese side.

Monday AMV

I tried to watch Blue Gender last week, but couldn't make it through the first episode. I'm just not in the mood for giant scary robots.



So instead we grilled on the community grills, nestled in a copse of dead pines, adding the thrill of forest fire to the traditional back yard grill experience.

This is the first time I stood by a grill with a fire extinguisher. Just in case.

Cool video

Krav Report

On Monday, we used dizzy bats to simulate fighting drunk.

I was horrible at it. Fortunately my sparring partner was a big, tall guy, so I didn't have to aim so much as just stagger in his general direction.

Monday AMV

In honor of my skydiving adventure:

Skydiving

Corbeau in her Ronald McDonald Skydiving Suit of Awesomeness

Saturday we drove out to the middle of nowhere, east of Richmond, and went skydiving. Unfortunately, they only had three tandem instructors, and were running behind, so we spent some quality time hanging out in the hanger on a hot August day.

But at last, it was our turn to go up. Since there were four of us, they split us into two flights. My roommate, The Starving Artist and I went on the first flight, and I jumped with Instructor Dave. The rest of the plane was filled with a group of formation jumpers.

Dave and I were the last to jump out of the plane, and after being hooked up to him, I would say the most difficult part was walking up to the door. I had to drop my weight and then we sort of waddled.

There was a bar, but I was worried I'd forget to cross my arms over my chest so I just started that way. Dave said "1..2.." and then we were out. He said I gave an impressive scream. Between the adrenaline and trying to remember all the things I was supposed to do with my body, I don't even remember screaming.

He flipped us so we were free falling backwards, and we could watch the plane flying away from us. That was cool.

Then we were free falling, which was a lot of fun. Dave took us through some spins, and then he had me watch the altimeter so I could pull the cord at 5,500 ft. I was trying to be exact though, and I must have waited too long and Dave pulled the cord.

Going from 120 mph to the slow glide of the parachute is quite the sensation. This morning, I can feel where every harness was around my body.

As we glided, Dave showed me how to control the chute, and we did some turns and spins, and he took me through a cloud, which was really cool.
See the speck below the blue canopy? That's me.

It was a beautiful day and we jumped over some really pretty country. The other cool thing was feeling the temperature change, growing warmer and more humid the closer you came to the ground.

We landed and made a perfect landing.

It was a lot of fun.

Ground Defense

This week is ground fighting in Krav Maga. Ground fighting always leaves me black and blue, since it requires all kinds of force pushing you in all kinds of places.

Today we learned how to defend a headlock while mounted, and my sparring partner was a man who was at least twice my weight.

At least. I mean, when I was the attacker, straddling his stomach, my knees didn't quite touch the ground.

I didn't mind too much though, since ground fighting is the one instance where the instructors like you to practice with someone who is bigger than you, since another name for "ground defense" could be "rape defense."

It was much more difficult to flip him though. Possible, but much more difficult. It required explosive bursts and twists off the ground, plus quick recovery and attack in order to make it work. It was good experience though, since I learned some physics tricks to help in that situation. But I am black and blue all over.

I was going to stay an extra hour today and take the Level 1 class, but my right leg (which took the brunt of the class) informed me that it was a bad idea.

So now I'm home, with a bowl of cereal and ice pack. Life is good.

Monday AMV Late

Ugh, sorry things have been slow. Work's been insane.

Science!

I really need to find a way to incorporate zombies into my research.

Krav Maga Hybrid

There were only 3 of us that attended the fit class Sat morning, so the instructor had us finish up with something new. Something he called, "The Krav Maga Hybrid."

The three of us ran behind his car, pushing it around the building.

Twice.

Why does any building need three speed bumps anyway?

Monday AMV

I finished XXXholic over the weekend. I'm sad there's only one season, I was starting to really like it. I have a friend that's going to let me borrow the manga though.

Krav Report

Last night, we learned how to head butt.

Head freaking butt.

It was fun, but if its done properly and full force, you can only rep 4 or 5 of them before you start getting loopy.

I have to admit that the streak of mad scientist in me finds the thought of breaking someone's nose with my massive cranium very satisfying. In fact, I think this calls for some evil laughter.

Mwa ha ha ha.

We also learned a defense to being grabbed from behind. In an effort to make it more realistic, we had to stand with our eyes closed and wait for random attacks, because the defense is meant to work when you are off balance. If you're anticipating the attack, you don't get off balance.

Well, I definitely wasn't anticipating because I got pulled to the ground and found myself fighting from an awkward kneeling position. But the instructor was pleased, since a mess up showed that I was training properly.

When it was my turn to be a roving attacker, I actually managed to take a big guy to the ground.
I had to jump to even reach his neck, and figured he would probably just shake me off but what figured, "Why not?"

I jumped, grabbed and next thing I know he was on his butt on the ground.

Usually the attacker grabs the neck and pulls back, but since I jumped all the pull went straight down and he lost his balance.

Judging by the amount of times he came to thank me for giving him "good training" I'm guessing he doesn't get taken down very often. But he was grateful because he never thought about dealing with a jumper and, quite frankly, that's about how 80% of people would have to attack him.

Monday AMV

I'm totally enjoying Soul Eater.

GI Joe

Not as bad as Batman and Robin. But its pretty bad. Some of the dialogue is laugh out loud awful, and most of the time the story line is pretty silly, but the action scenes are cool if you don't think about them too much (how are they screaming under water? And, for that matter, how are so many things burning? Under water? Don't think about it. Just don't think about it.) Anytime the ninjas were on screen it was cool. Snake eyes was awesome, and his fight scenes with Storm Shadow were intense. The rest...well, try not to think about it too much, or you'll find yourself wondering just how someone becomes a low level maintenance tech on a sonic pulse cannon hidden on a secret evil base deep in the arctic ocean. Seriously, did they place a want ad? Craig's list? Evil Merchant Marine? Also, if you eject while the plane is currently out of the atmosphere don't you just...die? Float and die? These are just some of the questions I pondered during the course of the movie, despite my attempts at trying not to think about it. Also, that whole, "I was forced to do it by the millions of tiny, evil, nano machines in my brain" is like the oldest line in the book. Its up there with the twinkie defense.

SYTYCD Finale

I've been trying not to write too much about television, but tonight is the big finale!! I want anyone who's not Evan to win. I like Evan, he's cute and all, but the other three are all better dancers than he.

I loved the Matrix Paso Doble.

Workplace Fun

I got into a Sound of Music lyric quoting contest with a friend at work.

Unfortunately, I lost when I couldn't remember the stinking line that ends in "Schnitzels with Noodles."

Sad, I know.

WARNING: Extended focus and concentration on Sound of Music lyrics will create a brainworm that only Britney Spears can kill.

Random Comic Post

Wolverine has always had crazy hair.

But now, it's anime crazy.

Monday AMV

I had a big presentation today at work which, fortunately, went very well. Since I was too nervous to eat lunch I stopped at Chili's for steak and mashed potatoes. Judging by the odd looks I was getting, they don't get very many people in suits there.

Let's sit back and relax with some Soul Eater, which I've been watching online.

Ow

It was sparring today at Krav. With 4 minutes round.


But instead of focusing on how many times I got hit in the face, lets focus on more pleasant thoughts.

Thoughts of Deadpool:


Thoughts of Big, Curtainy Dresses:


Whatever the crap this thing is:




More Deadpool:


And ninja guys who thought I was hot:

Monday AMV

Temari says, Let's watch some anime!

The convention was awesome, and I got to see some cool new anime. Like this one, Soul Eater.

Harry Potter

So my work friends AND my roommates are all going to midnight showings of HP7. (Not together)

Basically, all my social groups are going to see it and I can't go. I simply can't. I have so much to do at work and I can't do it on 3 hours of sleep.

But it is KILLING me.




Stupid grown-up responsibility.

Hope its awesome. :)

Monday AMV

Otakon is this weekend!

Otakon is an anime convention in Baltimore, and I will be there as Temari from Naruto.



The girl with the enormous fan.

Which means I have spent the better part of the weekend prepping and spray painting. Actual construction of the enormous battle fan is being handled by my awesome roommate, The Starving Artist.

Jump Rope, the Infernal Device

I went to the Krav aerobic workout this morning. Today, part of the workout included some intensive jump rope work, that I told the instructor that I couldn't do. "Nonsense." He said, "If I can do it anyone can do it." I couldn't do it. So he spent quite a bit of time during the workout teaching me how to jump a rope. I got pretty good at it by the end, although I still couldn't manage the jump I was supposed to do.

Videogames at Wolftrap

During the summer, the National Symphony Orchestra puts on some fun concerts at Wolftrap, an outdoor venue maintained by the park service. They play various movies, and the symphony and choir provide a live soundtrack. I love it. It sounds so amazing. We've been to their Looney Tunes show, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Last night we went to VideoGames Live, and in a few weeks we have tickets to Wizard of Oz. We like to take picnics and sit on the lawn.

Except for Wizard of Oz. We bought seats to make sure we'd have a good few of the movie. I can't wait!

But last night we were on the lawn, so I stopped in at Wegmans. Wegmans is a grocery store that's a lot like Whole Foods, except its about the size of Kansas, and they only ask for an arm, instead of an arm and a leg at checkout. But they have all kinds of fun prepared goodies, so its a really good place to stock up for a picnic.

We were a little late, so most of the lawn was already filled. We found some seats right around the big screen, but we could see the little screen on the inside, where the seats are.

On the screen they played montages, cut scenes and game play from video games while the NSO and choir played the soundtrack.

It was awesome.

They started out with a classic game montage that had everything from Pong to Dragon's Lair. Donkey Kong never sounded so good.

After that they had montages from modern games, some of which had really impressive soundtracks. God of War had an operatic solo, and I'm actually thinking of looking for the soundtrack to Final Fantasy 7. It was really fun to watch, even for the games I had never heard of.

They also had this guy:



He was amazing. He played for us blindfolded, but even when he wasn't blindfolded he was still wicked fast and amazing to watch.

There was also a video of a live action Ms. Pac Man being chased by the three ghosts through the streets of New York that was hilarious.

Lets see, they had some 20 yr old kid play space invaders while the symphony played the soundtrack in real time to his game, but he was HORRIBLE and didn't last very long. As a consolation prize they give him a home version of space invaders so he could practice.

They also had a guitar hero competition. The guy who won then played Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion on expert while they symphony played behind him, and the thousands of people in the crowd cheered him on. He was awesome! Even on expert he had a 609 note streak, scored over 300,000 points, and won a free laptop.

Videogames live is touring, so if it comes to town near you, I recommend seeing it.

Status Report

So its been three days since I've been back and I'm over jet lag and any day now I'm going to make it to the grocery store.

But Monday morning, 5 am came awfully early.

I've been trying to get a schedule change at work since December, and it was supposed to go in effect the Monday I got back. However, no one seemed to remember this but me. It wasn't on any of my emails, it wasn't in the time system, and no one in admin seemed to know what I was talking about, so I just worked a normal schedule.

Tuesday I got an email that said, basically "Congrats! You're schedule change has been approved. You owe us an hour." So I've had to work late for the past two days. Its alright though, because I finally have my schedule change.

Tonight I worked until 5, and then drove straight to Krav. It was a sparring day, and I felt everyone of the 14 days since I'd been there last.

And the onion rings I had for lunch.

During the push ups I could feel my arms whimpering something along the lines of "I thought we weren't doing this anymore! We've gone all weak and wobbly!"

On the upside, there was a really good looking guy there tonight. On the downside, I accidentally kneed him in the groin during mass attacker drill.

Hard, judging by the amount of time he spent in the bathroom.

I feel really bad about it.

Monday AMV - Jet Lag Edition

First full day of work after vacation + 2 hours time difference = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.


While I was at home my little sister lent me her King Quest's collection. We used to play those games all the time as a kid, and I can't wait to play them again.

Even though you die constantly and the only thing I really remember is that you defeat the Yeti by throwing a custard pie at it.

In honor of King Quest, one of the best parts of King's Quest 6.

Sweet!

I'm flying home tomorrow, so things will be slow for awhile. Well, even slower than usual if we're being honest. :)

Holy Fetchin' Crap

This is horrible.


Man, I used to ride the red line through DC sometimes. Those poor people.

Monday AMV

I watched Gun Sword this weekend.



At least, the first part of it. I didn't realize it was a mech anime, and I'm not a fan of big, giant robots.

Except, of course, for Evangelion. But they're big, giant robots made sense, and it was mostly about people going insane anyway.

Happy Father's Day

Bad Week

Hmm, what to do when something rather important at work goes up in a big flaming ball of awfulness.

Watch a show about people's who typical work day sucks even worse.




I wonder how long the dude in number 4 had to stand in front of a fan for the dramatic wind affect.

Gah, now I have that song totally stuck in my head.

Let's see. Who else could be having a bad day at work?

Random security goons on Noir.



Berserk voice actors?

Monday AMV

Over the weekend I saw XXX-holic for the first time. Its seems to be ghost stories featuring "the dimensional witch"

It was some interesting, weird stuff.



I love the art. Everyone is so elongated. It reminds me of the wierdness bridging the Renaissance and the Baroque. Mannerism?

Man, its been way too long since Art History.

Pop Quiz!

I've developed a reputation at work as being "the religious one." Which is interesting since I can think of two of my coworkers who've been there longer than I have, who are very devout to their particular religions, and who could easily best me at any trivia involving the Bible.

Maybe I'm just more noisy about it.

Anyway, one of my coworkers called and asked me to name off the ten commandments.

"What?" was my exact response.
"Well you know them right?"
I wasn't sure I did actually. "Off the top of my head?" I asked, stalling for time.

Turns out they were trying to think of the ten commandments and could only come up with nine. So I started naming off commandments and, luckily, hit the one they were missing at number 2.

Can you do it?

List the 10 commandments. Right now.

No peeking, No cheating, No Googling.

GO!!

Medieval Times

Saturday I went with a group of friends into Maryland to go to Medieval Times. Its a massive restaurant designed like a castle with an inside arena. Based on the order you arrive, you are given a colored crown and a number. (They look like Burger King crowns.) We had red and yellow crowns, so we sat in the red and yellow section, and were told that our knight was the red and yellow knight. To our right sat the green knight section. The green knight was our immortal enemy and we were to boo him at every opportunity. Since he ended up riding past us quite a bit we booed him with gusto and he sneered back. He sneered well.

The yellow knight section, seated across and up from us, was filled with soccer hooligans. Or perhaps they spent the hour wait at the bar (you get there an hour early so you can shop and look at their stuff), or perhaps both, because they screamed and hollared and had a chant of "Blue Sucks!" going for at least 5 minutes. They also got chastised by security a couple of times. Watching the yellow section was almost as entertaining as the show itself.

You are served several courses, all of which you eat with your hands. We got Tomato Bisque in a bowl with a handle, garlic bread (aka Texas Toast), 1/2 a small chicken, a pork rib, (seriously, a single rib) an herb roasted potato, and an apple tart.

While you eat there's a story, they have the horses do all kinds of cool tricks, bows, dances that sort of thing. They had a falconer, which was awesome, and the knights did all kinds of tricks. They grabbed flags from the ground, threw them to each other, threw lances at a target, grabbed tiny rings with their lances, all kinds of funness.

Our knight, the red and yellow knight, also known as The Stealth Knight, which apparently won out over Sir Baby-Face, or Sir Sucks-a-Lot (our knight died in the first joust, the only knight without a single win. We had to content ourselves with cheering for whoever killed his killer, and booing the Green Knight.)

It was a lot of fun. The Princess was annoying, but whenever she was talking there was a pink light, so you could ignore her and focus on tearing apart your chicken by hand.

I also bought a mango slushy in an awesome looking black glass.

Monday AMV, now with more mullets

I'm loving these literal videos:

HA HA HA!!

This is brilliant.

Assassin Fashion

An assassin in white? I'm not sure I approve.



All kidding aside, this game looks amazing. The graphics are beautiful.

School and Yankees

I have a class every day through Wednesday this week. Its a good class, but 8 hours of focused training a day can be really draining. The instructor is from Mississippi and in an effort to keep us awake and paying attention, he occasionally attempts to teach us proper English. Cuz even though we all live in Virginia, we might as well be Yankees since we can't talk right. Perhaps the most useful lesson has been that you can pretty much say what you want about someone as log as you tack a "bless their heart" on the end of it. We've been split into teams, and my team amuses ourselves by changing our name constantly. It started when we couldn't agree on a name, so we changed it, but now its become a running joke. We wait for when the instructor is away, or not paying attention, and then steal the paper with all the teams on it, and change our name. My favorite so far have been Team Flip Up Chasing Waterfalls Freak-a-Leaks The Team Formerly Knows as Freak-a-Leaks

Kewl

Monday Music Video

It's back! It's back! It's back! It's back! It's back!It's back!It's back!It's back!



I thought Pushing Daisies was canceled, but then it magically appeared on the DVR Saturday. Yeah!

This is Cool

Friday Fun

Since I've been watching SYTYCD instead of blogging, I thought it only fair I post a highlight from the show.

Its awesomely bad.

Morning?

I have been staying up way too late to watch SYTYCD, otherwise I'm sure this post would be much more witty. Hope everyone had a good holiday. Between that and overtime I haven't been around much. Enjoy pondering the following clip.

Watch Human Piano Fur Elise on CollegeHumor

Busch Gardens

Saturday I went to Busch Gardens with some friends from work. They have a drop coaster there called the Griffon. It has three rows, 10 across, and they take you up to about 250 feet, dangle you over a 90 degree drop, and then just let you hang there for a bit. Its hard to describe what this feels like, but according to the girl next to me, it sounds like this:

ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshOHMYGOSH

And then you drop.

It was pure awesome. I went on it three times.

There are bootlegs of the ride on youtube, I liked this one best:

Monday AMV

Ergh. I've had a headache I just can't shake for two days now. I was going to go to Krav tonight, but with my luck it would be sparring practice and I would get hit in the head repeatedly.

So instead I'm at home watching X-files.

Hmm, what anime could possibly encompass this never ending head pain?

Evagelion.

VA Allergies

Two weeks of constant rain have increased mold, and when its not raining the tree pollen levels are off the charts creating a perfect storm of allergens. A lot of people are sick. Even Benedryl hasn't been powerful enough to stop my hay fever. Tuesday night I was so congested I couldn't take the pressure lying down, so I formed my pillows into a sort-of pillow chair and slept on an incline.

Which worked great until about 2:30. That's when one of the key load-bearing pillows gave out, sending the whole structure crashing down and my head bounced off the mattress with a soft "DONK." I spent the next half hour engineering another pillow chair with a less dramatic incline. Which gave me about two hours to doze until I had to get up.

Today however, I found an upside to my allergies. Someone in the lab was working on something particularly odoriferous. You could follow its progress through the lab by the choking, gagging scientists left in its wake.

Except me.

Didn't smell a blessed thing all day long.


Hee hee hee.

Star Trek

I went and saw the new Star Trek movie Friday night. BSA wanted to see it on IMAX, and the only show left was the 1245 am.

The movie was so good, I wasn't tired once. I never felt like it was 2 am. Or even 3 am. Its set in an alternate universe, so some of the stuff is different, but its still awesome. Especially McCoy and Scottie.

And it never bothered me that Spock was Sylar. I thought it would.

The special effects were amazing, and for the first time ever, they had the Enterprise, in space, upside down, vertical, all those fascinating ways that a ship can actually travel in space instead of riding like a Hyundai down some invisible galactic highway.

Neat

We went and toured a new Navy ship that was moored in Old Town. It made me nostalgic for the sea. Its the smell. You just get immersed in the distinct smell of sea, metal, oil, the smell of the ship and it takes you back.

This is beautiful. Its a time lapse video of a tanker making her way out of Houston at night.



Check it out, you'll see why I loved going out to sea. Its almost as awesome as coming back to home port after being out at sea. ;)

Found via Ace of Spades.

Monday Morning Music

Its the Technoviking! The really good stuff starts around the 1:00 mark.

Krav Story

Tonight, I managed to kick up to a guy's head with my right roundhouse.

Philly

I went to Philadelphia for my bday weekend, and had a great time. I planned my trip around a plan I found online called "Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Lunch." My friend Yoosh came with me, and went to eat and tour.




Friday we went to Morimoto for lunch. Morimoto is an Iron Chef, and is restaurant is really cool. The doors were bright green,
the ceiling was wavy, and the frosted glass partitions between tables changed colors.

I got the tasting menu, which was seven courses of awesomeness.

The first course was tuna tartare. They took meat from the belly of the tuna, mixed it with shallots and herbs, formed it into a
little tower, and served it in a bowl of some amazing soy sauce. The second course was really thin slices of Pacific Snapper,
served in hot oil with ginger and lemon. The oil was hot enough to cook the fish slighty and it was amazing. On top of the fish
was sea urchin roe, and it was sweet and soft. This was my favorite course. Third course was a micro-salad and striped tuna
sashimi. I'm not a fan of sashimi. No matter how pretty they make it, its still just a chunk of raw fish. Course 4 was tempura
rock shrimp with a spicy orange glaze. The rock shrimp meat was really rich, so they serve it with endive leaves to help cut the
richness. 5 was Chilean Sea Bass with a sweet black bean paste. By this time I was getting pretty full, so I only ate the bits
with bean paste. 6 was sushi, three California rolls and three spicy tuna rolls. Course 7 was desert, black forest cake. The cake
was rich chocolate square, with cherry whipped cream on the inside. There was a little sour cream and a sour cherry on top. It
was really good.

We saw Wolverine, and then spent the evening walking around center city exploring art galleries and even caught a string
quartet in Christ Church. Around 9 we were slightly less full so we went to Franklin Fountain, an old fashioned ice cream place
that offers historical blurbs on menu items.

I ordered a NY chocolate egg cream, which was the first slim fast. Billed as a cheap meal for the poor, and said to fill a man for
hours, it turned out to be a thick, carbonated, chocolate milk. It was strangely refreshing. Yoosh got a cherry bomb, which was scoops of chocolate ice cream in black cherry soda.

Saturday we went to Reading Terminal Market, where a nice Amish girl sold me the best cheese Danish I've ever eaten in my
life. We also hit a soft pretzel stand, where the Amish lady rolled out the dough, and then filled it with egg, cheese, and bacon.

Then we did the tourist thing. We saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, went on a ghost tour, and went to the Museum of
Art. The Philly Museum of Art is where Rocky makes his famous run, and when we came out the door, there was a group of
about 15 people making the run, and raising their arms in triumph. It was hilarious. Saturday was also our day of original
Philly cheesesteaks, which are made with cheez whiz and sweet peppers. It sounds gross, but its really good.

Sunday we walked around in the rain and explored, and then came home. It was a great weekend.

Independence Hall

Playing Chess in the Rain

Monday Morning Awesomeness

Guess what I got for my birthday? Pretty much the most awesome book, evah!

Here's a hint:



And here's another hint:



Yes, I am now reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It begins with that famous opening statement, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

I'm only to Chapter 4, but so far its been hilarious. It also enjoys the distinction of being the only book that I have ever actually read the list of illustrations.

Already I have seen the 5 Bennet sisters perform their zombie fighting technique "Pentagram of Death." Also, based on the aforementioned list of illustrations, I believe that Lady Catherine De Bergh employs ninjas. Awesome.

It is Birthday time!!!

Just for the author of this great blogg I figured that she would enjoy this one!!! It fits so well with the age!! Have a good one CORBEAU!!! This marks the time when she will no longer be in one of the largest demographics of single people in the world.

Cool

A rehearsal fight for the Serenity Maidenhead bar fight:



Found via Ace of Spades

Its Wretched HOT!

A story to help warm my poor cold family members stuck in the snowy West.

The weather in Virginia has decided to shake things up a bit by jumping right into summer. No gradual spring thaw, that's for sissies. What we need is July. July hit on Friday, and temperatures having been hanging out above 80 ever since, giving us a chance to realize that something has gone horribly wrong with our AC.

But beyond sweaty, personal discomfort, the unusually high temperatures have wreaked havoc with the local vegetation. The plants are freaking out. In my head, they sound like this.
"Wait? Where did Spring go? We slept through SPRING?!! Ohmygosh! Whatwedo!Whatwedo!Whatwedo?! POLLINATE!!"

Now everything is covered in a thick yellowish-green powder. Every time I walk across the parking garage at my work, I look at the floor and all I can think of is my high school algebra class, where the board and teacher existed in their own personal cloud of chalk. Every time I open my car door, there's a dramatic swirl of yellow-green, like I'm living in a bad Sci-Fi movie. Its crazy. My nose has entered a permanently sneezing/dripping state, but I'm still better off than most people with allergies. Some of them are really sick.

I went to Krav last night, and it turns out the dojo is also having trouble getting their AC up and running to July capacities. I think I sweated out about 3 gallons worth of water. Today, I went and invested in some under armor workout gear. It wicks the sweat away! After drilling for the first half hour, we learned some new self defense moves which required a grab. That was interesting given how slippery everyone was at the point. Our instructor pointed out that learning how to fight/grab someone who was slippery was good training. After all, you could always get attacked in the rain. Or fight when bloody. Or when you just happen to be REALLY sweaty.

It was fun.

Monday AMV

This is a pretty cool AMV, even though the music is odd, featuring Lina Inverse from the Slayers.

Friday!!

I had a big presentation that I had to give at work yesterday. Its been taking up a lot of my time, and now that its finally over, I feel like I should sing and dance.



Who knew there were that many 80s style leotards left in the world?

AMV Flashback

The Teen Titans. I loved that show!



I found this because I wanted to listen to Evanescence.

Krav Story

Tonight, we learned how to do spin kicks.

Spin Freaking Kicks.

The thing about Spin Kicks, is that you feel really cool when you do them. Even if you say, miss the pad entirely. Cool.

We also did an advancing side kick that was a lot of fun too.

Smingus Dyngus

I have a friend that went on a mission to Poland. On Monday, she invited a bunch of us over to celebrate the Polish holiday of Smingus Dyngus, where Poland has a national water fight the Monday after Easter.

You're thinking she made it up, aren't you?

I did! But I Googled it and found out it really happens.

Apparently the wetter you get the more blessings you have for the year. Of course, on Monday it was freezing here, and I can't imagine that Poland is somehow warmer than Virginia, so it seems a little crazy.

I was the only one with a water gun, which gave me the range weapon. Combined with my trout-fu I didn't even get wet. The others had two liter bottles, pitchers, and (my personal favorite) a kitchen pot full of water.

It was really cold.

Once everyone had emptied their containers we went back inside and watched Finding Nemo (water movie).

I think my favorite part of Smingus Dyngus was a toss-up between the hostage negotiation over a bag of cookies, and when my friend chased one of her roommates down the street yelling "Smingus Dyngus!" with her 2 liter Coke bottle of water.

Monday AMV

Did everyone have a good Easter? I have had way too much chocolate myself.

Fruits Basket 22 just came out, and there's only one issue left. Everything is wrapping up, couples are pairing off, and Tohru ended up with the guy I wanted her to end up with. Yeah!

So here's some Fruit Basket to enjoy.

Ergo Proxy

In the grim, dark, angsty future; the only thing that will protect you from virus-infected, insane, mutated killer robots is:



80's Eye Shadow. Radical.

In other dread future news, Alphabit Cereal will still be around.



If you're looking for a long term investment.

Ergo Proxy: Here there be weirdness. But its a sorta cool Sci-Fi weirdness, so I'm going to check out the second DVD.

Attack of the Tweeners

We were sparing in Krav today, and I ended up going with one of the advanced students, who didn't seem to realize the difference in fighting me, and fighting someone who's much bigger than me.

Anyways, he beat the ever loving crap out of me, and now I'm pissed and in pain. I needed to eat something but didn't want to eat anything, so I decided to split the difference and get a smoothy. I went to my local smoothie place only to find it full of teenage girls.

The kind of teenage girls who wear daisy dukes and a light hoody in 40 degree weather, and who apparently don't know their own names since one of them took my smoothy.

The horror...The giggling....

I realize part of it is projection from dealing with the jerk in Krav class, but I haven't hated teenage girls this much since I left high school.

Aliens vs. Monsters

I saw this on Friday, in IMAX 3D, and I thought it was really good. It made me laugh. The 3D was actually pretty cool. When the movie opened up with a space scene, and these 3D rock rings were orbiting a planet, every kid in the theater went "oooohhhhhhhh"

The glasses are these big plastic things though, so after awhile, they really start to press on your face. I was glad the movie was only an hour and a half, because my nose and ears were really starting to feel the pinch.

I think one of my favorite parts was when the president, voiced by Stephen Colbert, attempted to make contact with the giant alien robot by playing 80s music on a synthesizer.


Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

Monday AMV

Finally finished Berserk. Worst.Ending.Ever. But it made one funny AMV.

Friday Funny

Its time for a Star Trek Funny!



Picard, he's still the best Star Fleet captain.

Awesome Naruto Parody

Actually, its a parody of the abridged Naruto series, from the creator of the Abridged Yugioh series.



Stop Existing!!

It makes me wish he do Naruto as well.

Brain Worm

I have the Ha ha ha song from Naughty Marietta stuck in my head. What's especially vexing is that the only words I know are:

MWa ha ha ha, HA ha ha, Beem Moo may...Fa la la la HA HA HA Beem MOO MAY!!!


AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, oooaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

something something Beem moo MAY!

Needless to say, its really hard to sing this song with the whole, not being a famous soprano opera singer and all.

UPDATE: This song from this movie:



My favorite Jeanette MacDonald moment ever, comes from the very end of Rose Marie. She goes crazy on stage, has a great scream and a great faint. My little sister and I would fast forward through the entire movie (which kinda sucks) just to watch these last five minutes.

Monday AMV

A cute one from Bleach:

DC Tourist

Here are some pictures I took while touring the Capitol with my sister.



From inside the Capitol



Arlington



Jefferson Memorial



World War II Memorial



It was overcast and freezing, but we had a great time.

Random Tidbits

I finally saw the finale Galactica. I liked it! I LOVED the final battle between the Galactica and the Colony. And that final jump?

MAN! So intense! Loved it.

The other night, at Krav, I accidentally popped my sparring partner in the nose. I didn't hit him hard, we were only going 40%, and he was supposed to defend it, but he missed and THWOK. Right in the nose. It started bleeding, a little bit. I felt really bad, and I said I was sorry.

When it was his turn to throw shots at me, I ended up missing one and took a right cross to the face. It didn't bruise, and I guess turn about is fair play. :)

Bowling Awesomeness

At the bowling league today, the guy in the lane next to us had a clear ball with three snakes entwined inside of it. It was awesome. There was a cobra, a rattlesnake, and a venomous looking little green thing I recognized from Riki Tiki Tavi.

He let me try it. It was 15 lbs and a lefty, so I had to granny it, but it was still awesome.

I also bowled a 162 tonight. Woot!

Batman Coolness

Who knew one little symbol could be so different?

Watch Batman Logo Evolution on CollegeHumor

Monday AMV

I love this song.

Monday AMV

My big sister is coming!

So here's an AMV featuring the Paper Sisters from Read or Die.



Blogging will probably be really light this week.

Pineapple Rice

Right now, I'm in the apprentice phase of my work training.

This morning I had to go to Dover, Delaware to do some work with my mentor. He has two mentees right now, so we got a company car (we ended up getting a massive black SUV with a diesel engine you could hear for blocks. It was an interesting drive.) We were supposed to meet him at 7 am.

Our original plan was to leave at 4:30 (am) but the other girl texted me the night before at 10:30 saying that Yahoo maps put the trip at 2.5 hours so she was going to come a little early. I knew she was nervous about getting there on time, so I mentally translated that to "a lot early" and got up at 3:45.

She called to pick me up at 4:10, though she later admitted she'd been sitting in my parking lot for awhile. We got to Dover at 6:20, so we got breakfast and ate until my mentor drove in to the parking lot.

Our work got delayed, so I didn't get home until 3, slept for 2 hours, and then got up. I didn't want to, but was worried that if I slept again I would wake up at 2 in the morning. I also said I would go out to eat with my roommates. So I really needed to get up and moving.

We went to a Thai place that has a sushi bar. My roommates got sushi rolls, and I ordered Pineapple Fried Rice, which came in a half hollowed out pineapple. It was awesome, and it tasted really good. And half a pineapple is really deep. I ate from when it came out, til when everyone else had finished, and I barely made a dent.

I asked for a box, and to my delight, they boxed up the entire thing. Pineapple and all.

I am TOTALLY taking that thing to work tomorrow. :)

When the bill came, BSA looked at it and said to me, "Wow, you had fun."

I replied, "It came in a PINEAPPLE BSA. I'm only human."

Office Tai Chi

So, our office is on the ground floor on a major city street, with floor to ceiling mirrored glass all the way around. Now, I understand that when you walk by a reflective surface you may be inclined to check yourself out, subtly of course, to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be. But for some reason, around my building, people seem to think that the entire first floor is really just a mirror, with no offices or anyone who might be on the other side of that mirror, so they walk right up and check their ties, or their hair, or their teeth.

The point is, no one seems to realize there is an entire office of people on the other side of the glass, no one including the Tai Chi lady who has now shown up two mornings in a row with a very loud fan. THWACK it's open. THWACK it's closed. It's also very distracting.